One
of the most romantic weddings in the history of the Anamosa
Penitentiary has just occurred at that institution.

Julien
Allen and Jennie Garver, of Des Moines, were arrested for bigamy and
Allen was sent to the Fort Madison prison for one year and Jennie
Garver for one year in the female prison at Anamosa. He had a wife and
she a husband, but after they were sent to prison his wife and her
husband got divorces. Allen’s sentence expired January 5 and
Mrs. Garver’s has just expired. Allen came to
Anamosa and met her, and Chaplain Crocker, of the prison, united them
in marriage. They appeared to be as happy as could be, and left on the
evening train for Des Moines.

from
the February 16, 1951
Waterloo Daily Courier:

The
man who passed as a woman in order to allegedly obtain money under
false pretenses at Oelwein is under sentence to not less than seven
years at the Anamosa Reformatory Friday.

The
accused man, John Casstler of Raton, NM, was given the term Thursday at
West Union. Authorities said he dressed as a woman in order to obtain a
refund on gloves stolen from the store earlier.

Fayette
County Sheriff Fred House said Casstler has been dressing in
women’s clothing for three years. He wore slacks for his
appearance in court Thursday, but had his hair long.

He
will be dressed in men’s clothing at Anamosa.

from
the March 1, 1877 Perry, Iowa
Chief:

The
announcement that four convicts escaped the other day from the Anamosa
Penitentiary by knocking off a board, impels an exchange to ask whether
it is not better to use screws instead of nails in building state
prisons. The trouble about this plan would be that unless the heads of
the screws were covered it would give persons on the outside less
difficulty in entering the institution and annoying the inmates.

from
the November 11, 1891 Humeston,
Iowa New Era:

The
electric lights on the top of the 150-foot smokestack at the Anamosa
Penitentiary can be seen as far away as Manchester. The prison yard is
as light as day all night.

from
the June 18, 1949
Sheboygan, Wisconsin Press:

Ellsworth
Fuller, freed after 36 years secluded away in a reformatory, took a
look at the outside world today and decided he wasn’t so sure
he liked it.

Fuller,
now 60, has been confined in a ward for the criminally insane at the
Anamosa Reformatory since 1913 when he was 24 years old.
During all that time, he caught only one glimpse of the world
outside. That was 20 years ago when he made a trip from the Reformatory
for a medical examination.

Looking
at the world around him today, Fuller wasn’t so sure but what
he’d rather be back in the snug, safe ward.

It
seemed wonderful at first to be free,” he said,
“But now I’m not sure.What can I do in this new
world?

The
atomic age frightened him, he said. When he left the world, the horse
and carriage still was just about the most dependable means of
transportation. He was amazed and dismayed by speedy, streamlined
trains, fast bombers flying overhead, the rush of big trucks over the
highways, and the sight of skyscrapers towering over prairie cities. En
route here from the Reformatory, Fuller was driven by Deputy Sheriff
Fred Nespern. Nespern said Fuller ducked every time another
car approached. Once he tried to jump out of the car when a
huge tractor-drawn trailer roared past them.

"Good
Lord” he cried, “what was that?” Fuller
said the last car he’d driven in was a 1910 model. He was
surprised that there weren’t more horses to be seen on
streets and highways.

Once
they passed a tractor where a farmer was cultivating a field.
“What in the world is that?” Fuller asked.

Composition
roofing and siding on houses also interested him. In the days before he
entered the Reformatory, shingles were the thing.

Fuller
was sentenced to the Reformatory after a jury found him insane when he
was charged with assault with intent to rob. Psychiatrists
recently found Fuller sane. The state Board of Control issued an order
releasing him to be tried under the old charge. However,
District Judge Matthew Westrate decided Fuller had been incarcerated
long enough. He freed him in “the furtherance of
justice.” Most of the witnesses in the case were dead anyway.

Warden
Foss Davis of Anamosa said Fuller, who is stocky and gray-haired, was a
“good worker” with a fair education.

from
the July 27, 1899 Sandusky, Ohio
Star:

The
(Iowa) State Board of Control recently issued an order that the weekly
tobacco ration of convicts in the two penitentiaries should be reduced
from four to two ounces and butter should be added to the regime. The
order does not please the convicts. When it was first enforced, the
butter supply had not been received, and about 300 men in the Anamosa
Penitentiary refused to work. The inauguration of the order was
postponed until the butter should come. This was first served last
Saturday. Most of the men refused to touch it. Five hundred men refused
to work, and were taken to their cells.

from
the April 26, 1941 Iowa City
Press-Citizen:

Sought
for 27 years for escape from Anamosa State Reformatory while serving a
term for slaying his wife, the Rev. C.A. Higby, 56, evangelist, was
being held in jail in Atlanta, Georgia today, authorities announced.

Warden
Foss Davis of Anamosa Reformatory has asked the Iowa state Board of
Control for authority to come to Atlanta to obtain custody of Higby,
who was sentenced to prison from Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1913 for the
fatal shooting of his wife on December 10, 1912.

Earl
Stanley, Cedar Rapids chief of detectives, had notified police
officials in several southern cities that he had been informed that
Higby was conducting a series of evangelistic meetings in the South.

(follow-up,
as reported in the May 5, 1941 Oelwein, Iowa Daily Register):

An
additional five year sentence has been given the Rev. Charles Arthur
Higby, 55-year old Free Methodist evangelist who escaped from the State
Reformatory here in 1914 after serving 19 months of a 12-year term for
killing his first wife. Higby was arrested in Atlanta,
Georgia April 25 and was returned to Anamosa last week.

Judge
J.E. Hiserman pronounced the 5-year sentence which is mandatory for
escape from the Reformatory. The court remarked that there were certain
unusual circumstances in the case, but that he had no choice so far as
the sentence was concerned.

Higby
wept when he was taken into court. Ten years ago he was married in
Charlotte, N.C. and he and his wife have a 5-year old daughter, Betty.

He
shot his first wife in Cedar Rapids during a quarrel. After he escaped
from the Reformatory he started preaching in the South.

from
the December 15, 1894
Perry, Iowa Chief:

One
of the earliest convicts in the Anamosa Penitentiary has buried
yesterday in the prison cemetery. Charles Halchrist was his name, and
he was sent from Grundy County to the prison December 27, 1878, for
murder in the first degree, for life, so he had served 15 years, 11
months, and 10 days. He was a very devout Christian while in prison,
and it is thought he was smitten with a stroke of paralysis while on
his knees in prayer while in his cell, as he was found in that
attitude. His crime was an exceptionally heinous one. He was a farmer
and had a boy employed as a hired man. The boy’s wages were
allowed to accumulate until several months’ pay was due him,
when Halchrist paid him all up. The next day they were riding along in
a wagon when Halchrist pounded out the boy’s brains with a
hammer for the purpose of getting back the wages he had just paid him,
and which amounted to but a few dollars.